Leaving the tent, you do a quick look around the area and confirm that the mages aren't in sight.

Oh well.

Some legwork to the docks and you cross the river on a ferry again. The forested mountain range just a bit north, and your objective to the west.


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You take some crackers and meat slices.



Monk: "Ran around a lot. Did maid work in exchange for clothes."

Miimas: "Cool, thanks!"



You cast a Captivate with 4 tendrils per spirit, ordering them to flash a small light in front of Vandolf and taking care to make them not go all over the place.

Captivate seems to survive the initial cast well enough, though it seems like spirits are very occasionally dying here and there. Must be a pretty intense tendril cutting system if it's managing that against four tendrils per spirit.

Additionally, while your spirits are in the proper place to cast, no flash of light appears, even when you feel the mana being spent.


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You enter the forest like before, travelling the same path based on memory. When you see the large silhouette of the core, you circle around instead of approaching, and continue towards Magusalto. No sign of the mages.

Another large shape is ahead of you - another core?

This one is a bit smaller than the last, and you can make out faint sounds coming from it. It's also... Moving? The edges of the dark silhouette are wavering slightly.


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You attempt to detach one of the spirit "toes" - unbinding it from your real toe, to be specific.

It feels like something happened. You're getting a weird split-feeling now - your physical toe, your spirit toe, and the feeling that they're two separate things.

Not a thing easy to describe, since it's not something you've felt before.

Throwing caution and common sense to the wind, you rush at the core and aggressively hug it to wrestle it.

Which, really is you just hugging it.

And by hug, it's more like pressing your body and outstretched arms against the surface and pushing.

It's big.

HOWEVER, you don't feel the weird effects from getting close to the last core. You do feel warm, though. Feels like this core is very much alive, a strange boulder of gently pulsating flesh and stone.

Action for Kleigg:
> Keep following the trail of destruction, or noises of destruction if the trail runs cold.

Instead of having the spirits contain the spell, you cast Captivate and have the spell sent to the spirit multiple times through each of the tendrils.

Still no luck with this method.


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You circle the core while still "hugging" it.

Doesn't seem like there's any "door" or anything, the surface doesn't really change anywhere from the organic/stone feeling.


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Hmm. There's a panel for managing exceptions, where your current anti-magic is being cast (looks like you only have two maximum casts at a time - around the suit itself, which you can change, and the one you can freely place), some synchronization settings, suit status (mana, integrity).


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It's easier to follow the sound when the destruction is all over the place.

The underground 'city' is in shambles - collapsed buildings, blown off chunks of structure, burned corpses littering the streets.

Explosions sound out some distance ahead of you, and you cautiously approach. Another building nearby collapses in an explosion of dust and flames, the occupants inside screaming as they're incinerated and crushed.

Between the buildings, rubble piles, and clouds of dust, you can make out a blue shape darting around here and there.


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Reattaching the toe, you feel back to normal.

Spirit looks, spirity, you guess. It feels a bit more 'pliable' than before, maybe your experience with ripping out Tuhota's and Kuori's soul strengthened your abilities.